Blue Mountain quarterback Shane Grapsy called it the highlight of his athletic career so far.
The exhilarating high of defeating a rival, taking home the inaugural Clash of 61 trophy and winning the game's MVP honors gave Grapsy, now a senior, plenty of reason to cherish the Eagles' 35-14 victory over the Crimson Tide at Veterans Memorial Stadium last season.
"It was the best sports feeling probably I've ever had in my life," Grapsy said Tuesday evening amid preparations for tonight's 7 o'clock rematch at the Eagles' Nest. "It was my first Pottsville game, seeing everybody after the game, you could just tell it brought our whole school together. I couldn't have asked for a better game, especaily against Pottsville for the trophy, too."
Tyler Moser could only stand and watch from the sideline as he recovered from a wrist injury that cost him his junior football season at Pottsville.
Moser experienced the unenviable feeling of helplessness, standing idly, unable to contribute on the field as the Eagles ended the Tide's nine-game winning streak between the programs whose schools are separated by a mere eight miles.
"This is one of the games that I've been waiting for for a long time, being able to play against Blue Mountain," Moser said. "Being out last year hurt a lot, but I'm looking to get back in it.
"That was one of the hardest things, not being able to do anything and watching your team lose. You just have to sit there and watch."
Moser watched as Grapsy carved up Pottsville's secondary on his way to 237 yards passing with four touchdown passes and 21 yards on six carries.
And, for right now at least, Grapsy and his Eagle teammates have the constant reminder sitting in a trophy case in Orwigsburg.
"It's one thing to beat them, just to say we have the trophy and see it," Grapsy said. "It's in our trophy case. I see it almost every day. Every time you see it, you have flashbacks of the game."
Tonight, the Blue Mountain (1-1) will have to earn the right to keep it, as Pottsville (1-1) tries to snatch it away.
"It was bitter that loss that we had last year," Pottsville tackle Dan Grosser said. "I'm hoping we beat them and can do the same thing.
"There's nothing like it. I love the rivalry. This is the game that I look forward to every year. It's my favorite game."
Once again, there's potentially more on the line for both programs than simply bragging rights and a trophy.
The Eagles started the season with a loss to Conrad Weiser before bouncing back with a resounding 49-19 victory over Jim Thorpe last week.
Pottsville trounced Shamokin in its opener before being routed at home by state-ranked Berwick 56-7 last weekend.
Both squads have reached an early crossroads in their seasons.
"It's a crossroads," Blue Mountain coach Cory Mabry said. "We're definitely at a stage where we're trying to figure out how good a football team we are .... we've gotta gauge that now.
"This is going to be a huge gauge for us to find out where we are as a team, and to find out where we're progressing as a team."
Grapsy noticed a change in morale in the locker room and at school after last season's victory over Pottsville.
"After we beat Pottsville, everybody was confident," Grapsy said. "There was a lot more excitement in the locker room at practice. It was big momentum."
The season took a downturn for the Tide after last year's loss as the club dropped six in a row before closing the season with a victory at Twin Valley.
Playing a rival immediately after last week's defeat allows the Crimson Tide to turn the page quickly.
"I said it on the radio. It's nice that we have Blue Mountain week," Pottsville coach Tom McGeoy said. "(We can) kind of forget about Berwick. I know the kids are probably putting it behind them. You have a big game like Blue Mountain with a trophy and everything coming up, (and) it really makes it easy to forget about a bad loss like that."
While both Mabry (head girls' track) and McGeoy (assistant boys' basketball) have participated in the rivalry before as assistant coaches for football, this will be the first time each has been the frontman on the gridiron.
Mabry played against the Eagles as a student at Pottsville in the mid-1980s and also coached at Pottsville in the 1990s. McGeoy's teams never faced Blue Mountain in high school as the rivalry took a four-year hiatus with the Crimson Tide playing in the Wyoming Valley Conference from 1996-1999.
Both coaches are excited about the rivalry. Their approach this week, however, hasn't been different than that entering any other contest.
Each team faces the same pressures with this game, regardless of the trophy at stake.
"Of course if you have the trophy, the pressure's on you to defend it," Mabry said. "If you don't have it, the pressure's on you to get it back ... Really the kids haven't said one word about the trophy. They're just focused on the facing Pottsville. They know it's going to be a tough battle. They're just focused on the task at hand."
Neither the Eagles nor the Tide have forgotten last season's contest. Nor will they likely ever forget tonight's no matter the outcome.
"I'm sure that's in the back of their minds - seeing those guys run on our field, celebrating with the trophy (last year)," McGeoy said. "I'm sure that's there. I reminded them a little bit on Monday; I'll probably throw it in again on Thursday. It's Blue Mountain. If I have to get these guys fired up for Blue Mountain week, we probably have the wrong guys playing anyway."